


A Fragile Line

by onceuponanevilangel



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Car Accidents, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Major Character Injury, Pre-Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Emma Swan, Season/Series 03 Spoilers, Swan Queen Big Bang 2014, We're pretending the CS kiss never happened here, mentions of Outlaw Queen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-14
Updated: 2014-09-14
Packaged: 2018-02-17 07:53:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2302187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onceuponanevilangel/pseuds/onceuponanevilangel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A bad car accident lands Regina in the hospital in a deep coma, so of course Emma's surprised when the woman starts appearing to her for little more reason than to be a royal pain in the ass. Over time, the two women begin to grow closer, friendly even, but when things take a turn for the worse, Emma makes a discovery that they both may have already expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Fragile Line

**Author's Note:**

> My first fic for the Summer 2014 Swan Queen Big Bang. This was beta-ed by the fantastic fadingshadows. This started out back in May as an excuse for me to play around with tenses, but it turned into a full-fledged story. Just a general disclaimer: I know very little about any of the medical stuff I'm talking about in here. I researched it and I tried my best to keep it as accurate as possible, but please let me know if I made any glaring mistakes. Enjoy! :)

“Really, Emma.”

The voice makes Emma jump and she drops her jelly doughnut, sending powdered sugar all over the paperwork spread out on her desk.

“I thought we talked about this,” Emma says as she licks the sugar off her fingers. “You have to give me some warning when you decide to show up. Now I have to clean off my desk. Thanks.”

The figure materializes in front of Emma’s desk; it’s an all-too-familiar woman with raven hair and chocolate eyes and the same outfit that she had been wearing that night in the diner that Emma unknowingly ruined everything.

“Well I’ve spent enough time trying to decipher your paperwork to know that a little sugar isn’t going to make much of a difference,” Regina says, crossing her arms in front of her torso and squeezing gently. Emma instantly recognizes the gesture; Regina does it whenever she feels out of control. Just like that, Emma knows it’s been a bad day and it probably took more energy than Regina could spare to come here, but she knows better than to comment on it.

“Doesn’t matter. I still have to get it done and you’re not helping,” Emma huffs. “My mother’s taking this whole interim mayor thing pretty seriously.” It’s been a bad day for Emma too. Actually, it’s been a bad three weeks now, but today seems to be stretching on with nothing but paperwork to do.

“Of course she is.” Regina snaps. She paces back and forth in front of Emma’s desk, her heels making no sound on the tiled floor.

“Hey, don’t go being all bitter about it. There’s not exactly a whole lot you can do right now and someone has to make sure this town keeps running.” Emma picks up her doughnut and bites into it. Grape jelly squirts out of the opposite end, covering her papers in purple goo.

“Now that might be an issue,” Regina said with a hint of smile ghosting her lips. “You should give it to your mother like that.”

“Yeah, you wish,” Emma says. She swipes at the papers with the sleeve of her jacket, but only succeeds in smearing the mess even more. Excellent. Now she not only lost her doughnut, but she has to redo her paperwork too. With a scowl, she glances up at the clock before swearing under her breath. “Is it one already? I was supposed to pick up the kid fifteen minutes ago.”

“What are you talking about?” Regina asks, pausing her pacing and quirking her brow. “It’s a school day.”

“He had a half day and I promised to take him to lunch and then we’re…” Emma trails off as she looks at the woman in front of her. Regina visibly tenses; the vein in her forehead standing out as she swallows around the lump in her throat.

“You’re going to the hospital.” It’s not a question and though she already knows the answer, Regina’s face falls.

“Yeah. We’ve been there everyday. It’s a battle getting him to leave so he can go to bed.”

“Is he okay?” Regina’s dark eyes fill with tears, but she quickly blinks them away and brings a hand up to wipe away the stray moisture and stifle a small cough that escapes her mouth.

“He’ll be better when he can actually see you,” Emma says, ignoring the action. She stands up and grabs her keys off the desk. “Which, if you, you know, wanted to see him we could…”

“No,” Regina says simply. Her icy tone matches the defensive stance she’s taken on; her arms are crossed even tighter and her feet are firmly planted. Even so, as Emma watches, she notices the brunette’s form start to flicker as though Regina is having trouble keeping herself here. Emma knows she shouldn’t keep letting Regina waste what little energy she had on these visits, but she’d be lying if she said there wasn’t a small part of her that enjoyed seeing the other woman. Knowing that she’s the only one who has the privilege to do so makes it even better, but she till knows that Henry would love nothing more than to see his adoptive mother again.

“Well I just thought that…”

“I said no.” With that, Regina disappears as quickly as she had appeared and Emma is left staring at an empty room, part of her wishing that Regina would come back and another part wondering why she was so desperate to make the brunette stay. With a shake of her head, Emma tosses her now useless doughnut in the trash can and hurries outside.

***

 

The first thing Emma noticed was how small Regina was. Her persona always made her seem larger than life and those killer heels certainly didn’t hurt, but lying on a stretcher on the rain-soaked pavement as the EMTs fussed around her, she looked positively tiny.

The second thing Emma noticed was how pale she looked. The rain had already washed away most of the blood, but she had lost a lot and it showed. Her naturally tanned skin looked ghostly.

After a few last preliminary tests, the paramedics carefully loaded Regina into the ambulance. Emma started to follow, but David held her back.

“I’ll go,” he said. “You go get Henry and bring him to the hospital.”

All Emma could do was nod as she watched her father jump into the ambulance before the doors slammed shut and it sped off down the road, lights flashing and sirens blaring.

The walk to the station to get the bug and the subsequent drive to Regina’s mansion gave Emma time to start digesting what had happened. It was almost comical if she thought about it. She never would have believed a car accident could take down Regina Mills had she not been there to see the aftermath with her own eyes.

It was all perfectly orchestrated too, as if it was some sort of sick joke. Pongo got loose and in the pouring rain, Regina hadn’t seen the dog until the last second. She swerved sharply and slammed into a telephone pole at the perfect angle to send her precious Mercedes rolling into the ditch at the side of the road. She was unconscious even before the ambulance arrived.

Emma knocked on the front door of the mansion and tried to think of something-anything-to say to Henry, but when the boy opened the door, still in his pajamas and waiting for the milk he had asked Regina to get, the words disappeared.

“Henry,” Emma said. A lump had formed in her throat so that it was almost impossible for her to speak. Her voice cracked and she could feel the hot tears slipping down her cheeks. “Henry, there was an accident.”

She explained everything as best she could on the drive to the hospital. The moment they walked into the ER, David told them Regina was still in surgery and Whale would give them news as soon as he could. Snow was dropping baby Neal with Granny and then coming over.

Henry sat down in one of the lumpy beige chairs that lined the walls of the waiting room and picked at a stray thread on the plaid pajama pants that he hadn’t changed out of. He didn’t say a word and Emma and David knew better than to push him.

It was several hours before Doctor Whale came out. His face was solemn and Emma braced herself to hear the worst. She reached her arm over the armrest of her chair and felt Henry grab her hand. She squeezed gently to let him know that she was there. He squeezed tighter.

“Well, I have good news and bad news,” Whale said. “The good news is, she’s stabilized and while she did break a few bones, there wasn’t much internal damage that couldn’t be fixed.

Emma felt Henry’s grip loosen on her hand and she could hear her parents’ sighs of relief. “But what’s the bad news?” she prompted.

“The bad news is, she’s still unconscious. She suffered a pretty bad concussion in the accident which, ordinarily, wouldn’t be terrible, but couple that with the repeated head traumas she’s suffered recently and I’d say a brain injury wouldn’t be a stretch.”

“Is she going to be okay?” Henry asked. It was the first thing Emma had heard him say all morning.

“Honestly, I don’t know,” Whale said. “She’s in what appears to be a pretty deep coma and we can’t be entirely sure of what we’re dealing with until she wakes up. We’ll do everything we can to make sure she heals correctly and doesn’t get worse, but it’s all on her now.”

***

“How is she?” In the three weeks since the accident, Henry’s first words upon entering the hospital haven’t changed. Of course, he can see just by looking at her that she’s in the same state as his visit the day before, but he asks anyway. It makes him feel a little better.

“Still no change.” Dr. Whale’s response is the same too. “She’s still stable and looking good.”

Emma can’t help but think that ‘looking good’ is a complete lie. Regina looked good behind a desk, bossing people around. She looked good conjuring fireballs and combating all manner of villains. Hell, when she was giving Emma magic lessons, she looked like a damn model. But lying in a hospital bed with a tube up her nose and surrounded by machines that track her vitals with beeps and hums, Regina looks small, frail, broken, and just so unlike the Regina that Emma knows that it almost makes her sick.

Henry immediately sits down in the hard chair next to the bed and grabs his adoptive mother’s hand, rubbing his thumb gently over hers.

Emma settles herself in the other chair in the corner of the room. Whale had mentioned that there was the possibility Regina could still hear and comprehend what was happening around her, so Henry has taken to talking to her about anything and everything as he sits there.

“It’s really nice out today,” he says, gazing out the window at the bright, cloudless sky. “It’s sunny but it’s not too hot. It’s kind of an apple-picking day.”

Emma can’t help the small smile that slides across her face at Henry’s words. Through the one-sided conversations from the past weeks, she has learned quite a bit about what growing up with Regina as a mother had been like and she has to admit, it doesn’t sound so bad. Henry has spoken to Regina a lot about his childhood memories: picking apples, baking brownies, one-more-chaptering his way through the Harry Potter books until three in the morning. It’s comforting to know that her son had a good life for a while and for some reason, knowing it was with Regina gave her a warm, fuzzy feeling that she prefers not to dwell on.

“Oh, and I aced my math test too,” Henry says, pulling his blonde mother back to reality. “Good thing I got Emma’s number skills I guess.”

Emma’s phone buzzes in her pocket. She pulls it out and groans as she sees her mother’s picture on the screen.

“Hey, kid?” Henry turns to look at her, his hand never leaving Regina’s. “I’m just going to go to the cafeteria and take a phone call. I’ll be back in a few, okay?”

“Alright,” he replies. He turns back to the window and Emma takes that as her cue to leave. She takes the stairs down to the cafeteria and buys herself a coffee and a turkey sandwich before returning Snow’s call. If she’s going to deal with her mother right now, it’s sure as hell not going to be on an empty stomach.

Emma counts three rings before Snow answers. “Hello?”

“Hey, Mom. What’s up? You need something?”

“Oh, Emma, yes. I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind doing me a little favor?” Neal is crying on Snow’s end of the line and Emma can already tell that whatever she’s about to be asked, it’s not going to be fun. “Would you mind watching your brother for me for a little while? Your father’s at the store and I have to run to town hall.”

“Mom, I’m at the hospital with Henry,” Emma says. “It’s not really a good time.”

“It’s only for a little while and I can drop him off in ten minutes.” Snow sounds determined.

Emma takes the last bite of her sandwich and sighs. She can tell there’s no getting out of this, so she settles for the path of least resistance. “Give me twenty,” she says before hanging up. She drinks her coffee in a few big sips, it’s always served barely lukewarm here, and tosses the cup and her sandwich paper in the trash can. She walks back upstairs with a sigh, already planning out how to talk Henry into leaving.

***

Henry wanted to sleep in his old room. At least, that was what he told her when she started to take the turn to her apartment. The new baby meant there was little room left in Snow’s loft and Emma had since gotten her own place. Henry had his own room there with some of his clothes and comic books and everything Emma had gotten shipped up from New York after the curse (The second one? Third?) broke.

Of course, it was understandable that he wanted to be in the mansion. It had been his home for far longer than the apartment and after the accident, it would probably help him feel closer to Regina. Not to mention he had already been there all week. After Emma had brought Marion back, Henry had taken it upon himself to make sure that his mom was okay.

“Alright,” Emma said. She kept on driving straight and pulled up to the mansion. The second the car stopped, Henry ran out and raced upstairs. Emma heard his bedroom door shut and she knew better than to follow him. The kid needed some space and time to cope with everything. Come to think of it, maybe she did too.

The house was eerily quiet and smelled the same as it had on the day of the poisoned turnover incident: like apples and vanilla. She sank down onto the couch that probably cost more than she did and rested her head in her hands.

“What the hell are you doing in my house?”

The voice caused Emma to snap upright and scan the room with wide eyes. It was familiar and hearing it dropped a weight into the pit of her stomach. When she didn’t see anything, she chalked it up to the almost complete lack of sleep she had been struggling against since the night at the diner. After a few seconds of silence, she started to relax, but then she heard it again.

“Miss Swan, get off of my couch and out of my house.”

This time, though, the voice was accompanied by a shimmer in the air on the other side of the coffee table. After a few seconds, the shimmer began to take shape and Emma was staring at Regina who looked good as new. No casts, bandages, or cuts to be seen.

“What the hell?” Emma muttered. She rubbed at her eyes and pinched her wrist, convinced that this was some sort of dream. She knew she hadn’t been sleeping well lately, but it was a little early on for hallucinations.

“I could say the same to you,” Regina snapped. “Get out.”

“You can’t be here,” Emma said. She stood up slowly. “I saw you. Whale said...wait, are you a ghost or something? Shit, Regina, did you die?”

“What on earth are you talking about?” Regina asked. “Of course I’m not dead.”

“That what the hell are you?” Emma asked. “I saw you. There’s no way you can be here right now. I saw you.”

“Congratulations on your functioning eyes. Now leave.”

“Not until you answer my question. What are you?”

Regina rolled her eyes before saying, “I suppose I’m similar to a ghost. My body is still in the hospital, but I can project my consciousness elsewhere. Satisfied?”

“So you’re not actually here?” Emma asked.

“Physically, no.”

“Well then I’m staying.” Emma sat back down on the couch and put her feet up on the glass-topped coffee table. She crossed her arms and smirked. “And there’s nothing you can do about it.”

In truth, it was actually almost impossible for Emma to stay sitting like that. For the past week, guilt swirled in her gut at anything that reminded her of Regina or Robin or the possibilities that she had ruined for them. Sitting in the mansion with the brunette glaring at her (even a not-quite-ghost version of said brunette), Emma almost felt sick.

They were silent for a long while. Regina just stared at Emma and if looks could kill, the blonde would surely be dead several times over. Nevertheless, green eyes held brown until Regina’s form started to flicker and blur and then she was gone. Emma took her feet down off of the coffee table and just sat there for a few minutes, trying to comprehend what had just happened and why she had felt the need to argue with some sort of ghost Regina.

Okay, so maybe the sleep deprivation was getting to her after all.

Suddenly she heard movement upstairs. Someone was walking around. She stood up and crept slowly up the stairs. The hallway was empty, but she could see a light shining underneath the cracked door at the end. She slowly walked closer and pushed the door open.

The room must have been Regina’s; Emma could tell from the grayscale color palette and décor. She stepped fully into the room and her eyes fell on a lump on her bed. After a second, she realized the lump was Henry. He was clutching one of the pillows as though his life depended on it. Tear tracks shimmered on his cheeks in the dim light, but he was already asleep.

Emma was about to touch him, but then thought better of it. Instead, she grabbed the blanket folded at the foot of the bed and snapped it in the air, letting it flutter softly down onto the sleeping boy. She tiptoed out of the room, turning off the light as she went by.

***

Neal is crying when Snow drops him off at the mansion-after that first night Emma, had decided that it’s probably best for Henry to be close to the things that remind him of his mother for the time being- and part of Emma wonders if Snow made up some errand just to get away from the baby’s shrieks for a while.

“He’s already been fed, changed, and had his nap, so he should calm down for you. I’ll be back in a few hours to pick him up, okay?” Snow says with a bright smile. Yeah. This is definitely a trap. Snow leans down and plants a kiss on the screaming baby’s head, smiles at her daughter and grandson, and walks back outside, closing the door behind her.

“Okay, kid, do you want to help me entertain your uncle?” Emma asks hopefully. It’s barely been a minute and it’s already the longest amount of time she’s been alone with her brother. She’s been nervous around babies for as long as she can remember and the crying isn’t making her feel any better.

“I have a lot of homework, actually,” Henry said. “I’ll be upstairs if you need me.”

Emma sighs, but doesn’t say anything. It was hard dragging him from the hospital and she knows that Henry is taking this whole thing pretty hard. He can see his mother everyday, eyes closed on the hospital bed as though she’s only sleeping, but he can’t do anything about it. Emma almost feels guilty keeping Regina’s ghostly appearances to her a secret, but then again, telling him might just make it even worse.

After a few seconds, Neal realizes that his crying is getting him nowhere, so he starts fussing in Emma’s arms. A tiny fist connects with her chin and his sock-covered feet kick blindly at her shoulders.

“Well what do you want?” Emma asks, holding the baby out at arm’s length as another punch hits her nose. “You’re like the product of True Love or something, can’t you talk yet?”

Neal just keeps screaming and Emma can hear a door shut upstairs. It’s too far away to be Henry’s room, but then again, he’s taken to sleeping in Regina’s room more than his own so it’s not all that surprising that he’s holing up in there.

Emma leans down to unzip the diaper bag her mother had left next to the door. She pulls out s blue pacifier and sticks it into her brother’s open mouth. He calms down for a moment, but he suddenly grabs the pacifier, pulls it out of his mouth and tosses it on the floor. When his sister is too slow to retrieve it, he starts crying again.

“Alright, buddy, I got it. No crying, see?” Emma wipes the pacifier off on the hem of her shirt and sticks it back in her brother’s mouth. Neal gurgles happily before grabbing it and throwing it again. “Well if you’re just going to keep throwing it, I’m leaving it on the ground.”

Neal starts screaming again and Emma groans, bends down, and grabs the pacifier again. This time, Neal slaps it out of her hand before she can even get it in his mouth. “Seriously?”

Emma’s more than tempted to stick to her word and let the pacifier stay on the floor, but her brother’s face is starting to turn red and he’s kicking and screaming, so she bends down if only to get him to stop. She’s not at all surprised when the baby hits it away again. This time it slides under the couch. There is no way Emma is getting down on her hands and knees to grab something Neal doesn’t even seem to want, but she has to make him stop crying and she has no other ideas. Suddenly, the solution hits her.

“Regina?” she calls. “Regina, I need your help.”

Regina will always appear when called and this time is no different as the brunette materializes next to Emma. For a moment, Neal stops crying and stares, mouth open and eyes wide, at the woman who had appeared out of thin air, but then he seems to remember that he’s upset about something and the wails start again.

“What is it?” Regina asks. Her tone is gentle, but measured and her voice seems a bit deeper than normal. It’s bordering on hoarse. Emma almost thinks the older woman sounds tired. Could a projection of a person’s consciousness even sleep, let alone get tired? She shakes the thoughts away as quickly as they had arrived.

“This,” Emma says, nodding to the squalling baby in her arms. “He won’t stop crying and I’m not good with kids. I don’t know what to do. I tried giving him his pacifier but he keeps hitting it away.”

“He’s playing fetch?” Regina asks.

“What?”

“Fetch. He’s throwing something and making you get it for him. Henry used to do that all the time as a baby. It drove me crazy.”

“Okay, so what do I do?” Emma asks. Putting a name to the action helps a little, but it still isn’t shutting the baby up.

“Go get the pacifier.”

Emma does as she’s told, carefully shifting Neal to her hip so that she can reach under the couch and grab the piece of blue plastic. She dusts it off, stands up, and looks expectantly at Regina. “Now what?”

“Show it to him,” Regina commands, covering a cough with her hand. “Don’t let him hit it. Just get him to focus on it and then move it around slowly so he tracks it.”

Emma nods and holds the pacifier out. Neal tries to grab it, but she grips it tighter and waits until his sobs turn into sniffles and his green eyes lock on the object before slowly moving it back and forth. The baby quiets even further until he’s just staring slack-jawed at the pacifier in Emma’s hand. At Regina’s nod, the blonde places it in his mouth. Neal gurgles happily and instantly settles deeper into his sister’s arms.

“Is that all?” Regina asks.

“Yeah, thanks. Hey, are you okay? You don’t sound all that good and it doesn’t look like you’re really here.” Regina’s form is starting to blur around the edges and she’s almost transparent.

“That would be because I’m not.”

Emma rolls her eyes before saying, “Well I know that, but normally you’re opaque and you look pretty solid. What’s going on?”

“He has your eyes, you know,” Regina says, choosing to avoid the question entirely and try to change the subject.

“Yeah, I know. The little sticker’s got my chin and nose too. I mean, there’s so many combinations of genes, but…wait. Don’t change the subject. What’s wrong with you?”

Regina bites her lip and looks anywhere but at Emma. After the first visit when Emma insisted on staying in the mansion, the brunette had shown up a few times under the guise of making sure Emma wasn’t destroying her home. Soon, though, Regina began appearing more often and in different places and though things had been icy at first, what with the whole bringing Marion back thing, the two women had grown used to and even comfortable with each other’s company. Now, Emma’s starting to worry.

“It’s nothing,” Regina says quietly.

“It’s something,” Emma replies. “And whatever it is, you know it. Tell me what’s going on.”

“It’s getting harder,” Regina says.

“What is?”

“Staying.”

With that, Regina disappears. Emma just stares for a long moment at the spot where the other woman had been. Neal sighs in her arms, but she can’t bring herself to move. Regina’s confession had made her blood run cold and she can’t do anything but stare.

***

“So what’s it like?” Emma asked.

Regina jumped at the blonde’s voice. She had shown up at the sheriff’s station about ten minutes earlier and all she had done was watch Emma do her paperwork. “What is what like?” she asked.

Emma gestured lazily at the woman in front of her. “This. You being a ghost or whatever.”

“I’m not a ghost, Miss Swan.”

“Well whatever. This is the first time you’ve shown up somewhere other than the mansion. What’s the occasion?”

Regina’s cheeks turned a light shade of pink and she looked down at the tiles at her feet. Her response was mumbled, but Emma could clearly hear the words “I was bored.”

“Have you talked to Henry at all?” Emma asked. “He’s been sleeping in your bed every night and he really misses you.”

“No,” Regina said, tensing slightly and wrapping one arm around herself. “No I haven’t.”

Emma could tell that she was creeping onto rocky territory and as much as she wanted to pry, she wasn’t willing to risk driving Regina away over this, so she settled for changing the subject.

“Okay, so you got bored and you decided that I was your best choice for entertainment? I’m flattered.”

“Don’t be,” Regina scoffed. “Someone has to make sure you’re keeping on top of your paperwork without anyone around to give it to.”

“I still have someone to give it to,” Emma said. “My mother’s decided that since she’s not teaching right now because of the baby, she can step in as interim mayor until you recover.”

“Lovely,” Regina replied. She started to relax a little and her arm fell back to her side. “I suppose she’s already elected her woodland creatures and the dwarves to serve on the council.”

Emma chuckled. “Not yet, but I think she’s pretty close. If for nothing else, make sure you get better so that this town keeps running. I think you’re pretty much the only one who realizes this isn’t Disneyland.”

Regina cracked a genuine smile-the first one Emma had seen since that night in the diner-and nodded. “Well with that kind of incentive, I suppose I need to do my best to get back as soon as possible.”

“Why can’t you?” Emma blurted out. She could immediately tell from Regina’s body language that this, too, was a sensitive topic. “I don’t mean anything. I just…why couldn’t you just poof back into your body or something and wake up?”

“I don’t know,” Regina said. “I just can’t.”

“Well have you tried?”

“No, Miss Swan, I’ve decided to just exist as an incorporeal being for the rest of my life because I do so enjoy not being able to live my life or interact with anything around me. I love watching and being completely powerless as my body is sitting lying in a hospital bed like some kind of vegetable.”

“Okay, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”

Regina nodded stiffly. “It’s alright.”

“So I’m going to go back to my original question and ask what’s it like?”

“Well my shoes don’t hurt anymore.”

Emma hesitantly cracked a smile, but when she heard Regina’s laughter, deep and warm and bell-like and something Emma would kill to hear more often, she joined in and soon the two women were laughing together. Maybe it was the lack of sleep or the stress of the last few days or the absurdity of the situation, but they didn’t stop for a long time.

After a moment, Regina started to blur and flicker, which didn’t surprise Emma. After all, this was the longest the brunette had ever managed to stay for.

A few seconds, and she was gone altogether and Emma was left alone in the empty room.

***

It’s Henry’s voice that brings Emma into consciousness.

“Ma,” he says, shaking her shoulder with such force that he’s practically pushing her off of the couch. “Ma, wake up.”

“Huh? What’s going on? I’m up.” Emma shoots up and blinks until her eyes finally focus on her son’s face. “Henry?”

“It’s like nine o’clock at night. Are we going to eat at all?”

“Shit,” Emma exclaims as she whips around to look at the clock sitting on the mantelpiece. Sure enough, it’s late at night and she hasn’t eaten anything since the hospital. She’s not entirely sure when Henry last ate. Being the responsible mother is a lot harder than she thought. “Alright, kid, we’re doing dinner out. What do you want?”

“I don’t care.”

“Pizza it is then.” Emma stands up and stretches before walking over to the phone to place the order.

“Call me down when it gets here,” Henry says. He heads back upstairs and Emma hears a door bang shut. Even back in New York he had been drawing away from her thanks to his pre-pubescent hormones, but ever since the accident he barely says more than two words at a time to her. His continued sessions with Archie aren’t helping much either and Emma’s starting to get really worried.

Unfortunately, between her parents, the new baby, Hook’s never-ending pursuit of her heart that she’s more or less learned to ignore, and Regina, Emma isn’t focusing fully on Henry and now she’s really starting to regret it. She’ll have to do something with him soon. Maybe they can go camping or something. That’s assuming she can get him out of the hospital long enough to carry on a conversation.

Emma sighs and grabs the phone from the cradle on the counter. She orders a large pepperoni pizza and a bottle of root beer before sitting back down on the couch. She flips on the TV, absently flipping channels until she finally settles on a Supernatural marathon. She’s not really watching at first, her mind is racing and she’s thinking about anything and everything, but after a few minutes she starts getting into the show and she jumps when the doorbell rings, announcing the arrival of her very late dinner.

“Henry!” she calls up the stairs. “Pizza’s here!”

There’s no response, but she hears a door open and footsteps race down the hallway, so she heads to the front door to pay whatever poor sap got stuck with the late shift.

It only takes a few minutes to pay, take her order, grab some plate and cups and settle down in front of the TV to eat. Henry got really into Supernatural during their time in New York and he looks happy watching it while he devours his pizza. Well, he looks happier than she’s seen him lately and that’s definitely a good thing.

“Pizza and soda at almost ten o’clock at night? That looks like a shining example of a healthy dinner.”

Emma jumps at the voice and can’t help the gasp that escapes her as she sees Regina materialize next to the TV. Emma starts to say something, but the brunette just sighs and says, “He can’t see or hear me. I already tried.”

Without another word, she disappears and Emma stars at the side of the TV until the episode ends and Henry stands up.

“Are you alright, Ma?” he asks.

She shakes her head a little to clear her vision and nods. “Yeah, kid, I’m fine. Do you have anymore homework to do?”

“No. I finished it.”

“Okay. Then why don’t you head up to bed, alright? I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Mmhm.” Henry sets his dishes in the sink and trudges upstairs. Emma hears the door at the end of the hall shut and knows he isn’t breaking his new sleeping habit.

“Regina,” she calls. Nothing happens. “Regina, come on. I know you can hear me. Get down here.”

“What?”

Emma whirls around and almost steps right into the brunette in question. Even over the course of the day, she’s gotten more translucent and Emma can almost see right through her. She’s not entirely sure what that means, but judging by Regina’s comment earlier, it’s not good.

“What was that about?” Emma demands.

“What was what about?” Regina asks, crossing her arms and feigning innocence.

“Don’t play dumb with me. That stunt while we were eating. What the hell were you doing?”

“You asked me to let Henry see me and so while he was alone in the hospital room, I thought I’d try. I didn’t want to, but he deserved it and so I appeared in front of the window and he looked right through me. I tried to talk to him, but he couldn’t hear me.”

Regina’s eyes are starting to well up with tears, but she blinks them away quickly.

“So am I the only one who can see you?” Emma asks.

“It would seem so.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.”

“No. I mean why did you decide to try to show yourself to Henry? Why now?”

“I don’t know.”

“Cut the crap, Regina. You know why and I want an answer.”

“I don’t have to give you one.”

“He’s my son too and right now I’m the only parent he’s got. I think I deserve to know.”

“I just wanted to talk to him. I even tried to knock over the water on the nightstand so he’d know I was there, but I wasn’t strong enough.”

“Why now? All this time you’ve spent trying to avoid him seeing you and you just decide to do it on a whim?!” There’s a long silence broken by a soft cough from the brunette and Emma can feel the anger, confusion, and something else-fear?-boiling inside of her. “Answer me!”

“Because I can’t hold on much longer, Emma!” Regina cries. The tears are streaming down her cheeks now. They disappear before they can hit the floor. Emma waits for an explanation, but none comes. After a long moment, Regina speaks. “It’s burning hot in here. Why don’t you turn on the air?”

“Regina, it’s only 65 degrees in here.”

Regina’s widen and a hand that looks much paler that it had even just that morning comes up to touch her forehead. She flickers for a moment and then disappears completely without another word.

Emma can feel the fear creeping through her veins like ice. Through all of this, it never once occurred to her that Regina might die. She’s always been the strong, formidable mayor who could withstand anything and look hot as hell doing it in red lipstick and high heels. Even earlier in the day when Regina had said that staying was getting harder, Emma forced herself to think that maybe the brunette just needed a rest and she’d be fine tomorrow.

As reality begins to sink in, Emma has to sit down to keep from collapsing. Henry had already lost his father and now he might lose one of his mothers too. There’s a part of Emma deep down inside that wonders if maybe she would miss Regina for other reasons. They’re friends, sure, but how could losing a friend possibly hurt this much? Her heart feels like it’s about to break in half and she can’t help the tears that are dripping down onto the expensive fabric of the couch.

She falls onto her side and buries her face in the cushion as she cries herself to sleep.

***

“So what are we watching?”

“Shit!” Emma jumped and dropped her popcorn, the bowl shattering into a million pieces on the tiled kitchen floor. Fluffy white kernels scattered everywhere.

“I hope you know you owe me a new bowl,” Regina said, surveying the mess at her feet.

“Not that I’m not somewhat glad to see you, but give me a damn warning next time, okay?” Emma bent down and started to grab the biggest pieces of broken porcelain. “Where’s your broom?”

“Closet next to the pantry,” Regina replied lazily.

“What happened?” Henry called from the top of the stairs.

“I just dropped a bowl,” Emma called back. “Everything’s fine. Go finish your math homework.”

Footsteps padded back into a bedroom and a door closed again. Emma swept up the remainder of the mess and tossed it into the trashcan before grabbing another bowl-plastic this time-and another bag of popcorn out of the cabinet. She put the bag in the microwave and turned back to Regina who was staring at the ground and picking at her nails.

“So to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?” Emma asked. “Did you really miss me that much?”

“Well I couldn’t exactly think of anything better to do and Henry mentioned at the hospital that you had gotten a new movie.”

“If you wanted to see a movie with me, all you had to do was ask,” Emma said, wiggling her eyebrows.

“Don’t flatter yourself, Emma,” Regina said. “I just want to make sure you’re not corrupting our son with some ridiculously inappropriate movie.”

“One, I would never ‘corrupt our son’ intentionally. He’s not even watching. I think he’s doing his homework. Two, we’re back on a first name basis again, are we?”

“Well, yes,” Regina said. “We were something like friends before, weren’t we?”

“Yeah, but you haven’t called me Emma since before…you know. Marion. Dare I ask if you’re over he-who-shall-not-be-named yet?”

“I wasn’t dating Voldemort,” Regina said. She rolled her eyes and tried to hide her grin. “If you’re asking whether I’m ‘over’ him, then yes. He deserves to be with his real family and I didn’t know him that long anyway. I actually disliked him quite a bit before I realized that we were destined to be together about fifty years ago. If you’re asking whether or not I’ve forgiven you, the answer is maybe.”

“Is maybe a good thing?”

“Maybe is we’re getting there.”

“If it helps my cause at all, I like this you a lot more than past you. Minus the whole coma thing of course.”

Regina smiled and her cheeks flushed a light shade of pink. “I think that might help a little.”

At that moment, the microwave dinged and both women jumped. Emma pulled out the hot bag and poured the buttery popcorn into the bowl. She popped a few kernels in her mouth and walked through to the living room where she plopped down on the couch, grabbed the remote for the DVD player, and patted the cushion next to her.

“Wanna watch with me?”

Regina followed the blonde and sat down next to her on the couch. It took her quite a bit of energy to make herself solid enough to keep from falling through the cushion, but she managed to do it. “What are we watching?”

“A classic,” Emma replied. “The original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie.”

“Sounds interesting.”

“You bet your ass it is.”

The movie started playing and Emma devoured her popcorn within the first ten minutes. She set the bowl on the coffee table and crossed her arms over her chest to watch. About halfway through, her eyes started to get heavy. A few more minutes passed, and she was slumped against the arm of the couch and snoring quietly.

With her companion asleep, Regina didn’t see any reason to stay. She stood up and summoned every last bit of strength she had to grab the remote and shut off the movie. After that she draped a blanket over Emma’s sleeping form and slipped a pillow behind her head. Every muscle in her body was screaming in protest and she knew that it was foolish to be wasting all of her energy on something like this.

Nevertheless, she leaned down and planted a feather-light kiss to a pale forehead. There was a part of her that wrote it off as a force of habit from having done the same thing to Henry so many times over the years, but there was another part, a very tiny part deep in the bottom of her heart, that knew it was more than that.

She watched Emma’s chest rise and fall for a few more moments before disappearing as silently as she had arrived.

***

“How is she?” Henry’s only asking out of habit and Dr. Whale’s new answer stops him dead in his tracks.

“Actually, she’s taken a bit of a turn.”

“What kind of a turn?” Emma asks. Her eyes narrow at the doctor as if daring him to say anything bad in front of Henry.

“Nothing we need to worry about just yet,” Whale says. “Henry, why don’t you visit with your mom while Emma and I step outside?”

Henry doesn’t say anything. He nods as he moves to his normal chair and Emma takes that as her cue to follow Whale out into the hallway.

“What’s going on?” she asks, hands on her hips.

“Regina’s developed pneumonia.”

Emma’s not entirely sure what she had expected, but it was definitely not that. “How is that even possible? She’s in a hospital. Don’t you have, like, cleaning standards or something?”

“Yes, of course we do, but hospital-acquired pneumonia is actually a rather common complication in people who are in the hospital for extended amounts of time. She started exhibiting symptoms yesterday: coughing, labored breathing and such, and she developed a fever last night. We ran a few tests and found the infection in her lungs.”

“Is it serious?”

“It looks like we caught it relatively early, so I’d say there’s no reason to panic yet.”

“So what do we do?”

“Well, we’ve already started her on a round of antibiotics through her IV. All we can do at this point is wait and see if she responds to the medication.”

“The hell do you mean wait and see?” Emma demands. Her voice is almost a full octave higher, but she couldn’t care less.

“Regina’s allergic to penicillin, so we’re using the best antibiotics we can in order to target any and all of the possible pathogens, but there is always the risk that the pathogens are resistant to the medications. We’ll give it a little time and hope for the best.”

“How much time are we talking about?”

“Only a few days.”

“And if the meds don’t work?”

“If the antibiotics don’t work, then we’ll try our best to find something that will. There’s also the possibility that she might have to go on a trachea tube to help her breathe and if it gets worse, we’ll have to put her on a ventilator. If it comes to that then there will be more decisions to make—“

“I’m not pulling the plug on her,” Emma says. “No way is that happening.”

“I doubt it will come to that,” Whale replies. “And I certainly hope that it doesn’t, but it is a possibility that you need to be prepared for.”

Emma can feel her heart fall into her stomach and all she feels is fear and anger boiling in her blood. She fixes Whale with the iciest glare she has and her voice sinks much deeper than normal.

“You listen to me right now and you listen good. I don’t know or care about whatever went on between you and Regina in the old world and I don’t care about any beef you have with her now. That woman in there does not deserve to die and if I find out that you are withholding something from me or doing something to hurt her more, I will leave my badge at home, you understand? She is not going to die. Henry is not going to lose another parent. I’m not going to lose her.”

By the end of her tirade, the emotions have run out and all she feels is numb. The last sentence is slow and it hangs thick in the air. 

Whale’s eyes widen just the tiniest bit, but his face remains passive and unreadable. His expression just makes Emma even angrier, but she can’t do anything about it. All she can do is hope that he’s a doctor before a mad scientist and that whatever Regina did to him wasn’t enough to make him want to kill her.

And if he does something, well then she’ll just have to stand by her threat.

“We’re doing all we can,” Whale says cooly. 

With that, the doctor leaves to check on another patient and Emma’s left alone in the hallway. She leans heavily against the wall behind her and lets the tears pour down her face again. This is real. This is happening. This is the real world and after everything she’s seen and battled, this is how it might end: with something so mundane as a lung infection.

It takes a few minutes for Emma to compose herself enough to go back into the room. She stares at herself in the reflection of her phone and sees mascara streaks running down her face. Her eyes look red and she’s still sniffling. She uses the sleeve of her jacket to wipe away most of the evidence, takes a few deep breaths, and pushes the door open.

“What’d he say?” Henry asks. Emma feels his eyes focus on her bloodshot ones and she takes another breath before rehashing Whale’s words. Once she finishes, Regina starts coughing as if on cue only this time there is no hand moving up to stifle it.

Henry’s grip on his adoptive mother’s hand tightens and Emma knows that he’s trying to hold back tears. She had her breakdown already. Now he deserves his.

She stands up and wraps her arms around him. She plants a kiss in his soft, brown hair. She wonders how many times Regina has done the same thing. Emma places her hand on top of his, still joined with Regina’s, and gives a gentle squeeze. Whale wasn’t lying about the fever, it seems, as Regina’s hand alone is practically radiating heat.

With a last look at her son, she steps out onto the hallway to let him have his moment.

The door isn’t even all the way shut before the tortured sobs start.

***

“So where do you go?” Emma asked. “When you’re not here, you know? What’s it like?”

“Nothing,” Regina replied.

They’re in the laundry room in the mansion. After eleven days of paperwork, chasing Pongo, arresting Leroy, hospital visits, and playing full-time mom, Emma was finally forced to face the fact that at some point she was going to need clean clothes.

“No, come on,” Emma pressed as she dropped one of her tank tops into the washing machine. “What’s it like?”

“Nothing,” Regina said again. At the blonde’s annoyed glance, she elaborated. “It feels like nothing. I’m aware of what’s going on around me and sometimes I can see you or Henry or something, but for the most part it’s just nothingness.”

“Do you like it?” Emma threw a red tank top into the load. Over the past few minutes, Regina had already tried to tell her several times about the importance of separating the white clothes from the colors, but to no avail. This is one lesson the blonde will have to learn the hard way.

“Do I like what?”

“The nothingness.”

“Of course not. I’m completely powerless and I have absolutely nothing to do except exist and occasionally watch. It’s awful.”

Emma added a cupful of detergent to the washer and measured out the fabric softener before pouring that in as well. She shut the lid, hit the button, and pulled herself up to sit on top of the machine.

“So there’s not, like, other half-ghosts hanging around the or anything?”

Regina rolled her eyes and chuckled. “No, there aren’t any other ‘half-ghosts’.”

“So can anyone else see you?” Emma asked. Henry was really pulling away and she thought that maybe if Regina could just talk to him, even for a few minutes, it might help a little. Though Emma knew better than to directly ask about that, she decided to edge into the topic gently.

Sure enough, Regina tensed and her answer was measured. “I’m not sure. You’re the only one who’s had the honor at this point.”

“Well don’t you know how to make a girl feel special,” Emma said teasingly in an attempt to lighten the mood. “But seriously, though. Why me?”

“I don’t know,” Regina replied.

“So you didn’t have any say in the decision? The universe just decided to stick me with the royal pain in the ass?”

Regina’s face fell for a half second before she managed to slip her mask back into and Emma realized she had actually hurt the former queen’s feelings.

“Okay, no I’m sorry. I meant that as a joke. I mean, you were kind of a pain in the ass at first, but it’s fine now. I’ve gotten used to it and I guess I kind of look forward to seeing you sometimes.” Emma mumbled the last part and suddenly became very interested in the knees of her jeans.

“I do too,” Regina said quietly.

The two women remained there for a while with only the sound of the washing machine to break the silence. After what like forever, Emma broke the silence.

“So…I guess I never really go the chance to apologize.”

“What do you mean?”

“For Marion. I knew I wasn’t supposed to mess with the past or anything, but I did and I thought I could get away with it. I feel so bad about the whole thing and I’m sorry.”

Regina took a deep breath before replying. “It’s okay. Like I said, I didn’t care for Robin until I learned he was my soul mate and while we might have been happy together forty years ago, we’ve both changed a lot and it wouldn’t have lasted anyway.”

“So that’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“Am I forgiven?”

“I suppose so.”

“Awesome.”

There was another period of white noise from the washer. This time it Regina who broke the silence.

“It takes energy, you know.”

“What does?” Emma asked.

“Being here. Staying here. It’s hard. That’s why I can never stay too long for any one period of time.”

“Then why do you keep doing it?”

Regina’s face faltered for a half second as though she was trying to think up an acceptable answer, which she was. The truth that sprung to mind, the truth that she had realized the moment Emma’s touch had activated Jefferson’s hat, was not something that she was ready to admit out loud. Every time she shared her emotions with someone she thought she could trust, she ended up hurt, betrayed, manipulated, heartbroken. Actually saying it aloud would make it real and run her the risk of being hurt again. She had to think of something better.

“Someone needs to make sure you’re taking care of our son, right?” Regina said it teasingly, but her eyes darted across Emma’s face, gauging the blonde’s reaction. Unfortunately, she wasn’t buying it.

“Nice try. What’s the real reason?”

“I’ve simply gotten used to you.”

“Me too,” Emma said.

Before either woman could say another word, the washer stopped and Emma slid onto the floor so she could open it.

“Damn it,” she said when she looked inside. Her red tank top had indeed bled in the water and her white tops were now a light pink. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Regina bring a hand up to her mouth to hide a laugh. “Oh yeah, very funny. If you’re just gonna laugh then go. I’ll call for you when I need you.”

“You’ll call me? I’m not a dog, Emma.”

“Then I’ll make you a deal. You can pop in whenever the hell you want to as long as if I call you, you come.”

“And what, may I ask, would you possibly need a projection of my consciousness for?”

“Snow’s been guilt tripping me about not ‘bonding with my new brother’ and I have a feeling she’s going to make me babysit him soon. I’m not good with kids and Henry turned out fine, so I’ll need some pointers or whatever.”

“Fine. Deal. You call me, I’ll come. Good luck with your wardrobe.” Regina laughed once more at the look on Emma’s face before disappearing into thin air.

***

The call comes around one o’clock in the morning. Emma shoots out of bed and grabs the phone she’s left on the nightstand. She knows that any call that comes this early can’t be good. There’s a lump in her throat that makes it hard to speak as she answers. “Hello?”

“Emma? Emma, it’s Dr. Whale.”

Emma’s heart had been beating fast, but now it seems to stop dead. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. “What’s going on?”

“Can you and Henry get down here? Regina…well, she’s taken a turn for the worse and we’re not sure if she’s going to be alright.”

“Yeah. Yeah, we’re on our way.” Before Whale can say anything else, she hangs up and just sits there numbly for a long moment.

Then it hits her.

She throws the phone across the room and doesn’t even flinch at the sound of something breaking. She grabs a pillow from behind her and screams into it until her voice starts to go hoarse. Tears are pouring down her cheeks. She punches the mattress over and over again. No. This is not happening. This is some kind of dream.

The bedroom door creaks open and Henry steps inside, his hair still mussed from sleep. He’s wearing the same pajamas he was the day of the accident. This is real.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Go get your shoes on, kid. I’ll call your grandparents. We have to get to the hospital.”

Henry nods and hurries down the stairs, tears already glistening on his cheeks. Emma slides out of bed and stands up. She has to use the nightstand to keep herself upright. She moves slowly across the room. The phone is lying on the carpet next to shards from the mirror that she had broken with her throw. Because of course she needs bad luck right now.

Emma dials her parents’ number and when David answers, his voice still raspy from sleep, all she can manage to say is, “Regina. Hospital. I need you.” She doesn’t give him a chance to say anything before she hangs up.

The drive seems longer than ever and the silence is deafening. When they finally reach the hospital, both Emma and Henry are racing to Regina’s room. Snow and David are already there. Baby Neal is asleep in his carrier that’s resting on the chair in the corner.

The machines tracking Regina’s vital signs are beeping erratically. Henry all but collapses into his chair next to the bed and grabs her hand.

“Mom,” he whispers. “Come on, Mom. Wake up.”

Whale comes into the room and the expression on his face is grim.

“What’s going on?” Emma demands. “You said we didn’t have to worry. You said that yesterday. What the hell happened?”

“Regina’s having an adverse reaction the medications we’re giving her. Unfortunately, it’s not a normal reaction. It seems like her magic is causing her body to reject the drugs.”

“So what does that mean?”

“Well, under normal circumstances, it would mean that the pneumonia would spread and we’d have to try to find another way to fight it, but with the magic, I’m not entirely sure what’s going on or what’s going to happen next.”

“Is there anything you do know?!” Emma practically screams.

“Emma,” Snow says, placing an arm on her daughter’s shoulder. “Emma, relax.”

“Relax? Relax?! Regina’s dying! I’m not going to relax!”

“Emma.” Snow’s voice is low and warning and she nods in Henry’s direction. The boy is shaking and he’s got a death grip on his brunette mother’s hand. “Maybe we should take this out into the hall.”

Emma nods and follows her mother and the doctor out into the hallway. They close the door and Whale speaks again.

“Well, believe it or not, there is a little good news in here.” Neither woman says anything as they wait for him to elaborate. “We did some more scans and tests last night before all of this started, and it appears that any major injuries to the brain have healed. We’re still not sure to what extent certain areas were damaged, so there could still be lasting effects, especially in terms of motion, but if we can stabilize her and get her to wake up, I’m optimistic.”

“Can we wake her up?” Snow asked.

“I’m not sure. I’ve never had experience dealing with something like this before and until we know exactly what her magic is doing, we’re not going to be able to do anything.”

“Shit,” Emma says. She runs a hand through her hair and looks around as though the answer is written on the walls. “So what now?”

“We’re doing our best to stabilize her, but all we can really do is hope for the best.”

“Thank you, Dr. Whale,” Snow says. He nods and walks away.

“This can’t be happening,” Emma says. “No way is this real.”

“Emma, it’s going to be okay, alright? If there’s one thing I know about Regina, it’s that she never stops fighting. Just you wait. She’s going to open her eyes soon and we’ll talk to her and it’ll all work out.”

“Talk to her. That’s it. I have to talk to her!” Emma turns away from her mother and looks up at the ceiling. “Regina, I need you. Get down here.”

“I don’t think…”

“Shh. I know what I’m doing. Regina! Come on. I really need to talk to you.”

“Emma, what are you doing?”

Emma ignores Snow’s question and continues to look up at the ceiling as though Regina is just going to magically appear from the bright lights overhead. “Seriously, Regina. We had a deal. I need you.”

Still nothing happens. The brunette is nowhere in sight. There’s not even a shimmer in the air to announce her presence.

“Regina!” Emma cries, desperate at this point. “Regina!”

“Come here,” Snow says. She steps forward and wraps her arms around her daughter. The embrace sends Emma over the edge as reality hits her. Regina isn’t coming.

“We had a deal,” Emma sobs into Snow’s shoulder. “We had a deal.”

“I know,” Snow says gently. She moves a hand up to smooth Emma’s hair in classic mother fashion and lets her daughter cry. After a minute, Emma’s just sniffling and she straightens up and does her best to wipe the tears from her cheeks.

“Thanks,” she says.

“That’s what I’m here for.”

***

They hold a vigil in Regina’s room until the sun starts to shine through the windows. Henry doesn’t move from his mother’s side, stroking her hand as the machines beep around her. Neal wakes up at some point, but he doesn’t cry as if he can sense the gravity of the situation.

Every so often, a nurse will come into the room to run some tests or check the IV that’s keeping Regina hydrated, but the nurse never says a word. Emma’s worried, but then again, no news is good news in a situation like this.

Around eleven in the morning, David offers to make a coffee run.

“I’ll go with you,” Emma says. “I could stand to stretch my legs a little. Henry, do you want anything?”

“Can I have a coffee too?” he asks without turning.

“Yeah, kid, that’s fine. What do you want in it?”

“Cream and sugar.”

“Alright. We’ll be right back,” David says. Emma follows him to the cafeteria.

It doesn’t take long to get the coffees and as an afterthought, they grab some chips and cookies from the vending machine for breakfast. They take the elevator back up to the third floor. As the doors open, they see Dr. Whale rush past with a few nurses right behind. Emma’s heart stops as they turn into Regina’s room.

She and David race into the room to see it full of people. Henry’s standing up against the wall next to Snow who’s holding Neal in her arms and crying. The machines are going crazy. Whale is barking orders to the nurses and checking the IV in Regina’s arm.

“What’s going on?” Emma asks.

“She’s going into cardiac arrest,” Whale says. “You might want to step outside.”

“No,” Emma says.

“Emma,” Snow says, walking toward her daughter and grabbing one of the cups of coffee from her shaking hands. “Why don’t we just step outside and give them some room to work?”

“They have room. I’m staying.” She drops the packages of cookies she’s holding into Neal’s empty car seat and moves to stand next to Henry, wrapping a protective arm around his shoulder.

Snow gives David a look and the two of them step out into the hall.

Emma and Henry watch as Whale and the nurses fuss around Regina’s bed. The machines keep beeping faster and faster until suddenly it’s just one long drone.

Everything seems to happen in slow motion. Whale produces a defibrillator from somewhere and Emma can hear him call out, “Clear!” Regina’s chest jerks upwards, but the beeps don’t start again. Another call. Another zap. Still nothing. Henry buries his face in Emma’ shoulder. He can’t watch as they try one more time. No change.

“I’m calling it,” Whale says. His voice sounds far away and somewhat garbled as though he’s speaking underwater. “Time of death, 11:26 A.M.”

Emma’s coffee cup hits the floor.

The nurses start to remove the IVs and the oxygen tubes. They shut off the machines until it’s just Regina lying there looking as though she could be sleeping.

“Whale, can we…?” Emma starts. The doctor looks at her and nods. He clears the nurses out before leaving himself and shutting the door behind him. “You ready, kid? Let’s say goodbye.”

She guides Henry closer to the bed. He grabs her hand and pauses for a long moment, before throwing his arms around her. He’s crying-sobbing, really- and the tears make tiny wet spots on Regina’s hospital gown. He’s saying something too, begging her to come back to him, but to no avail. Regina’s body is already cold.

After a few minutes, he slowly stands up to give Emma a turn and moves back against the wall.

Emma looks down at the woman before her. Regina looks small and frail and deathly pale. Bad analogy, but true. She half expects the brunette to sit up in bed and say something snarky, but there’s nothing. Regina’s gone.

Over the past few weeks, Emma’s grown more that to the older woman’s company. They were friends now, that much was certain, but maybe there was still that small part of her that thought it was something more. She thought back to that conversation in the laundry room. Regina hadn’t been fully lying, but when it came to the brunette, Emma could always tell whether what she said was the whole truth or not, and that hadn’t been.

Emma has thought about it-the possibility of loving Regina-a few times before. That she’s willing to admit. She remembers something her mother told her once about True Love: it can break any curse, weather any storm, and counteract any magic.

The thought is only half-formed in Emma’s mind as the words rush through her memories. Magic killed Regina. Maybe it could bring her back. Before she knows what she’s doing, she presses her lips to cold, lifeless ones. She pulls away after just a few seconds and waits. She expects Regina to jerk awake like Henry had done when the curse broke, but nothing happens. She really is gone.

Maybe she doesn’t really love Regina. Maybe all she feels-or thinks she feels-is just lust or infatuation or something. Or worse: maybe Regina doesn’t really love her.

With a last lingering look, she starts to walk back over to Henry. Her cheeks are still dry. She’s not sure if she has any tears left to wet them.

“Come on, kid. Let’s go.”

Then Henry points to the bed. “Look!” he cries “Look! She’s breathing!”

Emma turns back around and sure enough, Regina’s chest is rising in a slow but steady rhythm. Emma hurries back over to the bed and Regina’s eyes start to flutter.

“Henry?” Regina asks slowly. Her voice is hoarse and raspy, but it’s music to Emma’s ears.

“I’m here, Mom,” he says, racing over and grabbing her hand. Tears are still pouring down his face. Slowly, gently, and with what looks like an unbelievable amount of effort, Regina lifts her other arm and wraps it around her son. She’s crying too and murmuring “I love you” over and over again into his ear.

“I love you too,” he whispers back.

Snow and David walk into the room than, Neal still in his mother’s arms.

“Regina?” Snow asks quietly.

“Snow,” Regina says. Henry stands up and moves to let Snow grab the older woman’s hand.

“Welcome back,” Snow says happily, moisture building in her eyes.

“How?” David asks, looking around the room. “Whale said you were…”

“Emma,” Regina whispers. She turns her head and looks at the blonde woman still standing next to the bed. “Don’t be alarmed, but I do believe your daughter is following in her father’s footsteps towards necrophilia.” The words are quiet and measured and Emma hands Regina the glass of water on the nightstand so she can wet her throat.

“Emma, you…?” David looks from Regina to his daughter as he puts together the pieces.

“I couldn’t lose her,” Emma says simply. “And I thought since it was the magic that was doing it to her, maybe the magic could save her.”

“True Love’s Kiss,” Regina says in wonder.

At that moment, Whale enters the room, but he stops dead when he sees Regina’s eyes open. He grumbles something about magic under his breath before turning around and walking out.

A few minutes later, a nurse comes into the room and ushers everyone out so she can examine Regina. Emma and Henry are reluctant to leave, but Regina squeezes their hands and smiles slowly and they know that this time it really is going to be okay.

***

After she woke up, Regina had spent another week in the hospital while her pneumonia cleared up. As it turned out, the kiss hadn’t only resuscitated her. Emma had also absorbed the brunette’s magic in an attempt to re-balance her own powers from Zelena’s spell. Rumpelstiltskin had assured them that Regina’s magic could return with practice and Emma’s body would adjust to having powers again soon enough.

Without magic to fight against the drugs, the infection had cleared up quickly. It took another week before the cast on her leg could come off, and then the therapy began.

The injuries to her brain, though healed, have left her with a limited range of motion. She can still walk with the use of a cane and she’s assured that she’ll be back to one hundred percent with time, but it’s another full week before she can go home.

Emma stays at the mansion after Regina comes home, mostly because the brunette is awful about using her cane-her well-developed sense of vanity makes it hard-and neither of them wants to put Henry in the position of being the one to help Regina up after a fall.

Still, even with Emma there, it’s a while before they even bring up the kiss, let alone the weeks that led up to it.

It’s a rainy day and they’re in the laundry room. Emma’s tossing clothes into the washer and this time they’re all whites. Regina can’t help the grin that creeps across her face as Emma shoots her a proud smirk before adding the soap and shutting the washer.

Once the washer is shut, Emma slides up on top of it and Regina remembers the last time the two of them were in this room like this. She’s sure that she knows exactly what’s about to happen next and she gestures for the blonde to move over so she can sit too. Her legs are still a bit weak and she’s not going to be able to stand up for very long.

“So we haven’t talked about it all,” Emma says.

“Talked about what?” Regina asks, feigning innocence. She knows it’s not going to work, but it can’t hurt to try.

“About anything. It’s been all about you and getting you better for the past few weeks, but we can’t keep changing the subject forever.”

“It happened,” Regina says quietly. “That’s all there is too it.”

After the kiss, Emma had thought that things would change between them. She had figured that since their mutual feelings had been proven, they would start to date or something, but things have been so stressful since Regina came home what with her daily trips to the hospital for physical therapy, the multitude of medications she had to take everyday, and just the brunette’s general crankiness at not being able to do much of anything, that it seems almost as though Emma’s taking care of two kids rather than one. Not that she’s complaining, but she really needs to get everything out in the open.

“No, Regina, that’s not all there is. I saved your life.”

“You kissed a dead body.”

“Don’t say that. That makes it sound weird.”

“It was weird.”

“I only did it because I…I love you.” The words are out there and just like that, Emma almost regrets saying them in the first place.

There’s a period of silence with only the washing machine to break it before Regina speaks. “I think we proved that already.”

“Yeah.”

It’s quiet again and neither woman is exactly sure what to say.

“So how come I could see you and no one else could?” Emma asks.

“True Love,” Regina says. She swallows hard and Emma can see the tension in the brunette’s jaw as she fights to keep her voice level. “I…I think I’ve know it for a while. Ever since you activated my magic at the hat. This just proved it.”

“So then how come Henry couldn’t see you? He broke the memory curse with you. That’s True Love, right?”

“Yes, but there’s certain things that only…that only romantic love can accomplish. I don’t know the specifics of it, but True Love changes as people change and I guess fate guided me to the person who could help me the most at the time.”

“I don’t believe in that bullshit,” Emma says, waving her hand and trying to make light of the situation.

“What?”

“Fate, destiny, any of that. It’s all a load of crap. You know what I think it was?”

“Enlighten me,” Regina says with a small smile.

“I just think you looove me.”

Regina rolls her eyes, but chuckles and leans her head onto Emma’s shoulder. “Yes, that’s exactly what it was.”

“Okay, but wait a second. How did Neal see you then?”

“What?”

“That day that I was babysitting Neal and you helped me with the fetch thing. He looked at you. Do I have competition? Are you a baby-phile? I feel like this is something I should know.”

Regina laughs and gives the blonde’s arm a playful slap. “Of course not. I think that has to do with innocence. He’s a baby and is therefore completely innocent and the lines of magic tend to blur when that’s involved.”

“So you’re not in love with my baby brother?” At the glare she gets, Emma lifts her hands in mock surrender. “Hey, I was just asking.”

More silence. The washer vibrates beneath them and though the motion is making Regina a bit uncomfortable, she’s not ready to move.

“So where do we go from here?” Emma asks quietly.

“I don’t know,” Regina says. “Whenever I start to plan for the future, someone always seems to come along and ruin it.” It’s said jokingly, but Emma still shifts a little. It’s been well over a month now since the diner incident and though Regina’s assured her on multiple occasions that she’s forgiven, Emma has yet to fully forgive herself.

“That’s okay,” she breathes. She rests her head on Regina’s and closes her eyes. “I’m good with here.”

And she is. Henry’s been more open and happy than she’s ever seen him, and that’s including their year in New York. Things might still be rocky with Regina, but then again, they always have and Emma would rather have rocky than nothing.

“How about dinner?”

The question is so quiet that Emma’s not even sure it had even been asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean dinner. Not here. Not with Henry. Just you and me and dinner at Tony’s?”

“That nice Italian place?” Emma almost can’t believe what she’s hearing. “Why Regina, if I didn’t know you better, I’d say you were asking me out on a date.”

“Don’t spoil the moment,” Regina snaps. “Do you want to or not?”

“Of course. When do you want to go?”

“How about tomorrow night?”

“Sounds perfect.”

The washer stops then, but neither woman can be bothered to stand up.

“You know, if we’re going to go out on a date, then we should make it official, right?” Emma asks. Regina arches a brow in question, but when she realizes that Emma can’t see, she gives a soft questioning hum. “Well, the last time I kissed was…you know. So maybe we should…”

The movement is surprisingly fluid and Emma finds herself cut off as a pair of warm lips press against hers. The kiss is short and chaste and when Regina pulls back, there’s a smile on her face.

“Does that answer your question?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I think so.”

“Good.”

“You know something?” Emma asks.

“Hm?”

“I can’t believe it took almost losing you to realize what was going on. I mean, I really should have seen it coming. The White Knight and the Evil Queen. The savior and the caster. The light and the dark coming together. You can’t write this crap.”

“Mmhm.”

“Are you comfortable?” Emma asks, looking down at the woman whose head had once again taken up residence on her shoulder.

“Mmhm.”

“Are you going to fall asleep?”

“Maybe.”

“Well then maybe we should go back upstairs.”

“No.”

“Okay.”

Regina yawns and whispers, “It’s all worked out now, hasn’t it? Everything’s finally okay now?”

Emma thinks back to everything that’s happened over the last two years since she came to town. The curse is broken, They’ve bested Cora and Greg and Tamara and Peter Pan and the Wicked Witch and broken another curse. Things have finally settled down and though she knows that as long as she holds the title of Savior, there’s another shit storm waiting on the horizon, but for now things are normal and peaceful and good.

“Yeah,” she says, though she can tell by Regina’s soft snores that the other woman is already fast asleep. Still, she takes Regina’s hand in hers and strokes the brunette’s thumb with her own just as Henry had done in the hospital. She presses a gentle kiss to Regina’s head and smiles. “Everything’s okay.”

And for now, she lets that be enough.

*End*

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [A Fragile Line: Manips](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2293355) by [Dragoon23](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragoon23/pseuds/Dragoon23)




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